Al Pacino on Free Shakespeare and ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’

Actor Al Pacino has multiple awards and accolades to his name, but there are still “all these little dreams coming through,” he says, for which he is grateful.

Pacino, 72 years old, was honored in New York last night at the 50th anniversary gala for the Delacorte Theater, in recognition for his body of work with The Public Theater. He recently played Shylock in the 2010 Shakespeare in the Park production of “The Merchant of Venice,” which subsequently transferred to Broadway. Coincidentally, that was the first production put on nearly 50 years ago at the Delacorte, and Pacino was there in the audience.

“Coming to see free Shakespeare here?” he told Speakeasy on the lawn outside the Delacorte. When he couldn’t afford anything, he watched George C. Scott in ‘The Merchant of Venice.” “It’s Joe Papp. He was a radical and he was a visionary, and I loved him so much. It was just great being around him. You could see 50 years later, it’s still going on.”

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